Mansur Toshmatov

Mansur Toshmatov was born on 14 September 1954 in Tashkent, the son of the musician and composer Ganijan Toshmatov. In 1973 he enrolled at the Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute, in the music drama and comedy department, and graduated in 1979.

He began singing with the Sintez ensemble. From 1976 to 1979 he was a soloist with the Navo ensemble, and from 1979 to 1981 with Sado; both belonged to the Uzbekkontsert touring association.

In June 1978 he represented the USSR at the Golden Orpheus international festival in Bulgaria and took third place. The same year Melodiya released his record “Mansur Toshmatov kuylaydi”. His best-known song, “Russian Birches”, became widely known from 1978.

From 1982 to 1984 he worked at the Jizzakh Philharmonic, where he formed the Sangzor ensemble. In 1985 he founded the Fayz group at the Tashkent Philharmonic and also performed jazz with the Raduga ensemble of the Tashkent circus directorate. From 1991 to 1999 he was a soloist with the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Armed Forces of Uzbekistan, and in 1998 he formed the group Sideriz.

In 1986 he was awarded the title Honoured Artist of the Uzbek SSR, and in 1995 the title People's Artist of Uzbekistan. In 2020 he became a laureate of the CIS “Stars of the Commonwealth” humanitarian award and was awarded the Order of Labour Glory.

His repertoire includes pop and jazz songs, works by Uzbek composers, and songs by Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder. He also wrote music for some of his own songs.

Since 2003 he has been artistic director of the Botir Zokirov Estrada-Symphony Orchestra. In 2010, at the Creation of the World festival in Kazan, he performed the anti-war song “Нет войне!” as a duet with the Kyrgyz singer Salamat Sadykova.